Greece spends 25 billion euros per year — roughly 10 percent of GDP — on healthcare, but wasted spending and corruption have long plagued the sector, and lenders have set the health reform as a top priority for this year.
Parliament is expected to pass next week a bill which merges pension funds’ health services, computerises financial services at hospitals and opens up the pharmacists’ profession.
About 100 doctors have been staging a sit-in at the health ministry in Athens since Monday to protest against the reform, and some of their unions have threatened indefinite strikes unless the bill is withdrawn.
“We will strike again next week,” said Giorgos Petras, head of the Greek health workers’ union, which began a 24-hour strike on Friday. “This bill is fundamentally wrong. It must be withdrawn, health services must be protected.”
Drug stores closed down for three days and pharmacists’ unions warned that they would hold another strike on the day parliament votes on the bill.
Athens was also left without city transport for four hours on Friday, as bus, tram and train workers protested against the restructuring of the country’s loss-making state-run transport sector, another key EU/IMF reform.
